2 Peter 2:4-10
Peter states that “God did not spare angels when they sinned.” Rather than spare them, God “cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.” According to Genesis 6:1–4, the nature of the angels’ sin was marrying human women they found attractive and producing offspring with them. Despite never being mentioned again in the OT, this event is mentioned and explained in a number of non-inspired Jewish texts.51 That Peter says God “cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness” suggests he is drawing on 1 Enoch 6–21. According to this tradition, these angels taught their human wives all kinds of secrets/mysteries relating to magic, medicine, plants, etc., in addition to engaging in sexual immorality. Peter may have chosen this particular OT example (understood against the backdrop of Jewish traditions) because these fallen angels engaged in unnatural sexual immorality and were supposed to exercise a teaching ministry for the benefit of humanity that instead led to their condemnation. So, too, the false teachers of Peter’s day use “false words” and “sensual passions of the flesh” to exploit and ensnare people (2 Pet. 2:3, 18).
Peter repeats “spare” (pheidomai) from the previous verse, linking the two examples together, as they are in Genesis 6. After a description of the sin of the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:1–4, the following verses recount God’s sorrow at the rampant and pervasive wickedness on the earth and his decision to “de-create” the world through the flood (Gen. 6:5–7).
He was “a herald” (kēryx), “an official entrusted with a proclamation”; the early Christians used this word for those who preached the gospel (1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). Noah preached “righteousness” (dikaiosynē). Peter has already linked our standing before God through the gospel to “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1) and later in this chapter will refer to the gospel as the “way of righteousness” (2:21). According to 3:13, the new heavens and earth will be a place where “righteousness dwells.” Peter links the message of Noah to the gospel the apostles preach. Just as Noah proclaimed the righteousness of God and called the wicked to repent of their sins, so too heralds of the gospel announce the way of righteousness that calls sinners to trust in Christ.
Noah is portrayed as a faithful teacher of the gospel, in contrast to the false teachers Peter is repudiating. Noah faithfully communicated the truth of what God revealed to him and led his family to take refuge from God’s judgment. That is what a true teacher of the gospel is called to do: proclaim God’s judgment against sin and call people to take refuge in Jesus Christ from God’s righteous wrath.
(katastrophē), a word referring to a “condition of total destruction, with the implication that nothing is in its customary place or position.”
In doing this, God was “making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.” God’s purpose in destroying these two cities was not confined to judging their sin; he also purposed this event to serve as a warning of the greater final judgment awaiting the ungodly on the last day. Like the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah became a recurring picture of judgment in Scripture (Deut. 29:23; Isa. 13:19; Jer. 49:18; 50:40; Amos 4:11; Zeph. 2:9) and functions as a type of the sudden judgment that will come at Christ’s return (Luke 17:29).
Some have questioned whether Lot was truly righteous, given the serious sins he committed (Genesis 19). But the righteous are never considered to be perfect. Moreover, Scripture distinguishes Lot from the citizens of Sodom in that he received the angelic visitors and attempted to protect them from harm—a crucial and courageous action in his lawless and morally depraved environment.
Despite Lot’s clear flaws, Abraham considered him righteous (Gen. 18:22–33), and Lot did obey the angels in fleeing the city.
First Peter 1:6–7 indicates that its readers “now for a little while, … have been grieved by various trials” to test the genuineness of their faith. So they should “not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Pet. 4:12). As believers experience the trials of resisting false teachers and dealing with the fallout from their false doctrine, they can move forward in the confidence that God will see them through.
Although the language here is broad, encompassing a wide range of sinful passions violating God’s norms, the primary emphasis is likely on sexual sin. The word rendered “defiling” (miasmos) often has a specifically sexual connotation (Testament of Benjamin 8:2; Wisd. Sol. 14:26). By continually indulging in lustful defiling passions, the condemned demonstrate they have not in fact “escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Pet. 1:4).
As those who deny “the Master who bought them” (2 Pet. 2:1), the false teachers do not merely reject authority; they “despise” it. This verb (kataphroneō) has the sense of actively showing contempt toward something as having little or no value. Paul uses this same word to describe someone who despises God’s patience in not bringing immediate judgment for sin (Rom. 2:4).
